Regarding friendship, trust and betrayal

Related Media

Regarding Mr. Lown’s remarks that “It’s offensive to think that poor people are paying to defend these formerly rich people in order to get restitution for other rich people,” we find that Mr. Lown is himself offensive and has obviously not done his homework on the investors (victims) in this case.

To the best of our knowledge, few, if any, of these people are “rich people,” but instead would fall in the category of hard-working people who, after paying their taxes, supporting their families, contributing to charities, and (if anything was left) saved for their own retirement.

Investment with Gold Country Lenders was not based on greed, but simply an attempt to supplement their Social Security retirement funds and hope that it would be “enough” to last through their aging years. The involvement with Gold Country Lenders for most was based on years of friendship and trust that their funds would be secure.

Many entrusted and lost their life’s savings. To the best of my knowledge, most would have been self-employed, small business owners, farmers/ranchers, etc. In other words, people who did not have employer retirement plans and were simply those who work hard and accept their own responsibilities.

It is highly doubtful that the investors will ever get restitution for their losses; however, we do hope that others in the community will learn something from our losses and will not make the same mistakes in the future. Rather than “poor people paying to … get restitution for other rich people,” Mr. Lown and others should keep in mind that these “rich people” do pay their taxes and other obligations, which means that we also pay a share of the cost to defend those charged, benefits for the poor and most likely also help pay for Mr. Lown’s salary.